1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus for receiving and recording information to be recorded.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of color recording apparatus, such as color printing apparatus, there are already proposed, in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 521,676 now abandoned; 521,675 now abandoned and 521,674 now abandoned of the assignee of the present application, those apparatuses having memory means which is called color table or color palette. Also U.S. patent application Ser. No. 575,880 now abandoned (based on Japanese Patent Application Nos. 1-225351 and 1-299057) discloses a color monitor utilizing such color table as mentioned above.
However such memory means storing information on color, called color table or color palette, is fixed and lacks expansivity, so that, in case of storing information on a larger number of colors, it is necessary to move the currently stored information to another area and to newly register the information on new colors.
Also in the conventional color recording of information such as characters or graphics by a color recording apparatus, the information to be recorded and the color to be recorded are received in the form of codes from an information source such as a host computer.
Such color recording apparatus reproduces the characters or graphics of designated color on a recording sheet, by converting said codes into corresponding patterns, also separates the designated color into primary color components (R, G, B or Y, M, C, K) and recording said patterns of different color components in superposed manner.
For separating the designated color into primary color components, such color recording apparatus utilizes a memory of table form storing output densities of different color components at each address corresponding to a color (or identification) code.
The values of such color components are transmitted in advance from the host computer, and are stored, by the central processing unit of the color recording apparatus, into said memory.
As the quantity of information that can be stored in said memory is variable, it is necessary to provide said memory with a directory table indicating the color codes stored in said memory and the storage addresses thereof.
However, in order to designate the color to be recorded in the image recording, the operator has at first to refer to a code conversion table indicating the relationship between color names and color codes, and then to enter the color code and the values of color components of the desired color into the host computer. Also in case of confirming the registered color code and the color components thereof on the display of the host computer, it has been difficult for the operator to imagine the tone of the color from the color code.
Also the conventional recording apparatus for color recording of characters or graphics based on the color information from a host apparatus does not have the function of memorizing the color information from the host apparatus and releasing a list of thus memorized color information.
For this reason, the matching between the color shown on the display of the host computer and the color reproduced by the recording apparatus cannot be easily confirmed, and this fact results in the following drawbacks.
In order to confirm whether desired colors are actually obtained, the color output data of the characters or graphics have to be reproduced on the recording apparatus. Such operation results in the waste of recording materials such as toner or ink in case of complicated color output data, and gives rise to a significant waiting time for color reproduction.